Lennon Miller

I don't know how anyone can blame the laddie for not coming here.

We could have made a bid in January before interest elsewhere got serious. Even now, we could outbid other clubs, offer higher wages, promise decent game time. If we were offering all that would he turn us down to go to some newly promoted Italian side? Probably not.

The truth is that Celtic has let multiple young Scottish talents slip through its fingers over the course of the past decade - some that were even at Celtic to begin with. If the club can't convince an 18yo Celtic fan at Motherwell to sign with them, it's because they're simply not interested enough in doing so.

 

I honestly don't blame him if he decides against coming here. How much game time is he realistically going to get? Calmac isn't getting dropped, Engels isnt going to be an £11M bench warmer and we have Hatate/McCowan/Bernardo and even Nygren fighting for midfield spots in the team. We haven't managed to develop one of our own 18 year olds since Tierney a decade ago. So I'll not be offended if he thinks his best chance of success is abroad. Best of luck to him either way.

 

I don’t think we would have wasted our time making a bid in January if we didn’t believe we could convince him to join us. Rodgers is a fan of his and I believe he sees him as the future of our midfield.

 

Premature. He hasn’t turned us down or come out and point blank said he doesn’t want to come here. He Dad has said it’s his preference to move abroad.

He seems like he has a great attitude and has his head on his shoulders and I’m sure he will make the right decision for him.

 

There is a negative attitude that is perpetuated towards us when it comes to Scottish players.

There are a lot of youth players who didn’t make it here which is typical with any top club in their league. It’s cut throat at the top but the ones with the right attitude and talent do make it.

We also have a list of young players who we have brought in and/or developed..

Taylor, KT, Ralston, Cal, Griffiths, Brown. All league winners with champions league experience and internationals with us with numerous honours.

Although a while ago now, Stuart Armstrong was also another young talented midfielder who we brought in and developed and who won titles.

We gave opportunities to Turnbull who was hindered by injuries, but who left with 2 league winners medals.

Welsh has been given opportunities having come off the back of a loan with Morton and whose development has been heavily affected due to injuries.
Mikey Johnstone (born in Scotland) was given a lot of time and patience and couldn’t make it happen but left with a lot of appearances and league winners medals.
Others like Karamoko were on the cusp and left. Liam morrison left us for the bright lights of Bayern Munich. Now he plays for QPR.

Dane Murray has been given first team opportunities and who has also been desperately unlucky with two major knee surgeries at a young age.
But of all those youth players who left, how many have really kicked on? Ben Doak is where we really dropped the ball. Andy Robertson if you want to really reach.

The grass is always greener and sometimes there is a reason some players didn’t cut it. We can do better in our youth set up, no doubt. But It really grinds my gears when our own fans talk down the opportunity for Scottish players to play for Celtic and don’t talk about the success stories.

 

Not one of those players you mentioned has come through to become a 1st team regular in the past 6 years outwith Taylor

To put that in perspective we haven't properly developed anyone since Lennon Miller was in primary school so for him if he's looking at our recent track record his only success story is Greg Taylor

Hardly the most inspiring story when compared to the success of Hickey or Ferguson.

He's also no doubt looked at McCowan, a guy who was performing at at least the same level if not better than he was. Mccowan is a very good player but he's 5th choice here.

Coming here and being 4th/5th choice, not starting every week isn't going to develop Miller. The exact same way it didn't develop some of those you mentioned, Welsh, Johnston, Turnbull, Ralston

 

Taylor and Turnbull. Turnbull didn’t really reach his full potential but he still won a lot in his short time with us. That’s just the Scottish examples btw, we have signed a decent few young foreigners who have went on to do well.

I understand that, but that’s where I would have changed our recruitment strategy and target more of our young domestic talent. I made my feelings clear about McGinn at the time. But we have no qualms with parting with millions for the likes of Holm, Kouassi and Soro.

I agree about McCowan, I’m a fan as well. He plays with great tenacity and has a good left foot on him and I hope he continues to get opportunities. I’d have played him ahead of Engels and Bernardo on quite a few occasions.

I advocated for moving for Hickey and Ferguson at the time, I think we should have tried for them both although I don’t think Ferguson would have come to us due to his Rangers connections and many of our fans didn’t think he was good enough.

Not everyone can be a success story mate, it’s not like it’s the class of ‘92. The fact that some of those players haven’t went on and developed since leaving would suggest that might be their level.
Ralston has been a decent player for us as well, considering he had been effectively written off and has then come back and been huge for us in Anges first season deserves a lot of credit. He is a very capable full back and we gave him that chance and developed him from youth.
Welsh can’t stay fit.

MJ had obvious talent, but not sure how you can blame the club there. We gave him plenty chances and he either had no final product, chose the wrong option or got injured/never sustained his form. The club can only do so much for a player but we have given them all opportunities and the ones that take them have went on to have success with us.

 

100% agree with you on recruitment strategy. Hickey and Doig would be 2 most recent examples before Miller.

Ferguson always seemed bang average and is a real suprise how well he's done. Even when he's played for Scotland recently I don't think he's looked great but he's done well for himself since the move.

You're right in what you say about ones that have came through and there have been reasons for them not hitting the heights but in all honesty the last player we've brought through and developed into a constant 1st team regular would be Tierney and that was in 2015.

So I think if your Miller or his da and you look at us and say how are Celtic at developing and playing talented young Scottish players. You're probably not thinking it's the best move when you compare it to guys that have made similar moves abroad or down south.